


Restraint

by luoup (ravenic)



Series: Team the Best Team [Platonic VLD Week 2.0] [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adultification, Gen, Platonic VLD Week, Responsibility, shiro is a teenager
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-23 00:50:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11391933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenic/pseuds/luoup
Summary: Day 1 Prompt 1: RestraintShiro acting like a Grown Up





	Restraint

**Author's Note:**

> aaand here we go again. all 14 platonic vld week prompts. i still have zero self-control. 
> 
> following the idea that the show's summary about "five teenagers" suggests that shiro is under 20 years old, but he has to be the grown-up all the time. it probably sucks.

Takashi Shirogane was nineteen years old.

It was easy to forget – even back on Earth, he’d been the best pilot the Galaxy Garrison had ever seen. It was why he was chosen to fly the Kerberos Mission. And either the Galra thought he was older, or they had different aging concepts.

Or they didn’t care about sending a child into the arenas.

He didn’t look like a teenager, not much before and certainly not now. The white hair aged him a lot, and the scar just added to it. The other Paladins weren’t much younger than he was, but he was the oldest, and they looked up to him. He was the Black Paladin, the leader. They were lost in space fighting an intergalactic war, and he had to be the adult.

It meant that he had to act like it. Shiro was still technically a teenager, but he couldn’t goof off and get in dumb fights and make mistakes like the others did. He had to be the voice of reason, the commanding leader who kept everyone in line and working together.

It meant that he was sitting here, stiff and overheating, watching the rest of his team dash through what was apparently the equivalent of sprinklers in space.  
Lance, ocean baby that he was, was having a field day. His shrieking could probably be heard on the other side of the planet, but his smile was so big that Shiro didn’t have the heart to tell him to be quieter. Hunk was spinning in circle after circle, somehow not stepping on the sprinklers themselves in the process. Keith had been hesitant at first, but after removing every single piece of tech she was carrying – the pile beside Shiro was of considerable size – Pidge had hauled him in with her, and now they were zipping around through the showers, playing some kind of game of tag that seemed to change hunter and hunted without any kind of visible signal.

They were having a wonderful time. That alone was rare enough – they had been working harder and harder lately, always on the move and training when they weren’t fighting – but this was a peaceful planet, safe, and the only downside, the heat, was obviously not an issue if you could run around in sprinklers. Even the local aliens were enjoying the water, and more than a few were amused by the antics of the Paladins.

Shiro, however, was the head of Voltron and could not go around flinging himself into sprinklers like an excited toddler. So he sat in the uncomfortable chair, waiting for Allura and Coran to finish their bartering in the shop so they could all go back to the Castle of Lions. If he could have been in the water, Shiro wouldn’t have minded the wait in the slightest – probably just the opposite really – but out here in the dry it was hot and Shiro wanted to leave. So the moment the Princess and her uncle emerged, looking satisfied with their trading, Shiro stood.

“Paladins, time to go.” This was, predictably, greeted with a chorus of groans and whines.

“Already?” Hunk asked.

“Come on, Shiro,” Lance wheedled, “just a few more minutes?” Even Keith seemed to agree.

“Sorry,” Shiro said, failing to sound really apologetic, “we need to get back to the castleship. Let’s go.”

“But Shiro –” Pidge started, but Shiro was tired. “Sprinkler time is over,” he said, a little sharper than he’d meant to, “it’s time to go back. Get your stuff.”

The four obeyed, although clearly not happily. Lance looked a little surprised, but he didn’t say anything as he tracked down his shoes, flung away in excitement at the beginning of the adventure. Hunk looked uncomfortable at Shiro’s behavior, his headband crooked. His attempt to fix it left a hair bump that was ridiculous enough that any other time, Shiro would have laughed. Now he was silent, watching Keith stand awkwardly, water dripping from his shirt and soaked hair plastered to his neck and forehead. Pidge said nothing to him as she collected her gear with badly-suppressed anger in her aggressive movements. She was mad at him for ruining the fun. They probably all were.

Well, tough. They were all Paladins of Voltron. Shiro wasn’t going to be made into the bad guy just because he was the only one behaving responsibly. They had work to do, and Shiro was trying to be a good leader and keep everyone on track. It wasn’t his fault that they had all completely lost their minds at the sight of a few sprinklers. They should be more mature. He was trying to set a good example, even if they were all being too childish to follow it. They’d gotten to play in the water, there was no need to complain now that it was time to go back to real life. He couldn’t believe them.

(He couldn’t quite bring himself to believe his own arguments, really. Those sprinklers had looked really nice. But somebody had to be the adult.)

As he followed his disgruntled team back into the castleship, Shiro couldn’t help but think, just a little bit, that being a grown-up was not very much fun at all, not even in space.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry, shiro. being a Grown-Up is no fun.


End file.
